Toys, Baghdad trip and Medicare, plus readers weigh in on toilets

In the news today, the complexity over children’s health shows up in legislation to ban toxic toys. If the governor signs the measure will it really end toy civilization as we know it?

Another hot one: revelations that Saddam paid for a trip to Iraq. On one hand, it was a secret funding source; on the other the trip’s purpose was to witness condition for children.

On the VEB, xrower suggested we look at this issue.

Perhaps if the PI could get Mr. Copeland off the toilet (story) it might be timely to revisit Congressman McDermott’s 2002 visit to Iraq.

Indeed.

Editorial plans

We will be writing about Congressman McDermott’s trip. The source of the money — Iraqi intelligence — is unfortunate. But it doesn’t change the fact that McDermott was right about the war. Frankly: We wish taxpayers had paid for this trip. It’s the kind of eye-opening visit that makes sense for lawmakers.
D. Parvaz is writing this editorial, email: dparvaz@seattlpi.com

Joe Copeland is writing about the toxic toy legislation. We hope the governor signs the bill. There is time to work out details, but the reason it overwhelming passed is that it’s time to put childrens’ health first. Even above profits. email: joecopeland@seattlepi.com

Mark Trahant is writing about this week’s Medicare trustees report. The clock continues to tick: We know have about a decade to fix a massive financial problem. How we do that needs to be front and center for every national political candidate. It’s time to recognize that demographics doesn’t play politics.
email: marktrahant@seattlepi.com

Draft of the editorial on Medicare.

The next civil war

Is America ready for a civil war between generations? If that notion sounds blunt and overly harsh, consider what it means to a nation when its younger workers fork over payroll taxes that are fraudulent. These workers will not be getting the benefits currently paid to those who are retired or to those who will retire in the next decade.
The proof is the word “unsustainable.” It’s found every year in the report from the trustees for the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds. Every year policy makers say how terrible it is and then go on to do nothing. Social Security can be fixed, but Medicare is unsustainable because health care costs are rising so much faster than payroll tax receipts. That’s a hard fact that proves the very charge that Medicare is unsustainable.
In just over a decade, Medicare’s Hospital Insurance program will have only enough money to pay 78 percent of its costs. The shortfall keeps getting worse after that, unless benefits are cut or taxes are raised. The only problem with such a “solution” is that it is not possible to raise enough money through taxes to pay out promised benefits. That’s because total promises amount to some $36 trillion, more than double the entire U.S. economy.
The trustees said, “The longer action is delayed, the greater will be the required adjustments, the larger burden on future generations, and the more severe the detrimental economic impact.”
This is the critical election year. The next president will end his or her term just when “unsustainable” becomes more than a word regularly repeated in reports. Will it then be war?